Well, the Republicans got their trophy. There are two points that should be made about this episode. First, the attacks on Rice were a classic baseless Republican smear job, based on a false narrative. And second, as Erik has already said, there should be at least a presumption against picking Kerry to be Secretary of State. Granted, Brown is more damaged goods than he was in 2010. But it’s about probabilities — there’s certainly a risk of losing the Senate seat if Kerry resigns, so Kerry had better be significantly better than any other candidate if he’s going to be chosen. I suppose that’s possible, but it seems unlikely.

This kind of thing is so friggin depressing. I don’t even know if Rice was the person I’d think was the best, but to allow con men to make up a false scandal based on lies and never call them on it, and then give them what they want, it’s horrible. Hostage taking works, they get the ransom and then they shoot the hostage.

When this kind of thing happens it makes me want to ignore the entire toxic cesspool of political news, because what good does it do to be informed? But that reaction is also what the Republicans want. It’s a nice side effect for them, that people get too disgusted to pay attention.

There are lots of other candidates. But Kerrey wants the position, believes he is owed it and has done enough valuable work for the Obama administration that his appointment makes a lot of sense. Plus there’s no reason to believe he would be anything but a good choice.

Historiann had a post arguing this was Kerry’s Senate friends sabotaging their buddy’s competition for the job, presumably at his request. I was initially skeptical, but at this point it seems quite plausible to me.

The Benghazi stuff is bullshit but the conflict of interest in her potentially being involved in the decision about the Keystone XL pipeline when she is very heavily invested in oil companies standing to gain a lot in that decision was very disturbing.

If Kerry does become SoS, I hope that Gov. Patrick puts Barney Frank in as Senator – if for no other reason, than to just to watch the propellers on the Republican’s beanies spin so hard, they’ll lift them into the air corridor over DC.

And then in ’14, either Barney can run for reelection, or Patrick can.
Maybe find another Kennedy Grandkid somewhere – again, jess to piss-off the Republicans.

And I’m not worried about Li’l Scottie Brown any more.
Now that he’s free, let him try to call all of the Kings and Queens he wants (like any of them answered any alleged calls he might have made in the first place!).
He ruined himself in his campaign against Elizabeth Warren.
Any good will he might ever have had, he lost hunting for BS to smear her with.

Whomever Patrick appoints, if he or she wishes to retain the seat, will have to run in a special election within the first couple of months. I’m pretty sure it’s either within 90 or within 120 days of the vacancy. And of course the seat will be due for its regular election in 2014 as well.

I don’t think Barney Frank could beat Scott Brown in a statewide election this March.

or, just be blatant about it and change the MA law back to its old form where the governor appoints someone to fill the rest of the term, screw the special election. If the republicans are going to be blatant, why not follow suit?

Barney Frank did just fine running in his suburban district. He could wipe the floor with Brown. Warren wasn’t the greatest of candidates, but won handily. Coakely was a terrible candidate. I think there’s a lesson there.

I don’t see why Barney Frank couldn’t beat Scott Brown. Everyone opposed to the Kerry nomination seems to think that Scott Brown is some kind of unbeatable political god. Elizabeth Warren, who was not actually a particularly good candidate (I think she’ll be a good Senator, but she was a mediocre candidate at best) just beat him handily.

The only reason Coakley lost to him is because the election took place at just about the worst time possible for the Democrats, she didn’t take him at all seriously until it was too late, and she made a bunch of mistakes.

I really, truly think that Rice withdrew because she realized that if she survived the confirmation fight, she’d spend the next four years battling the whisper campaigns about her being “too brash” and “too blunt” and “too b-word we’re dancing around but is totally what we mean”. She decided it wasn’t worth it.

Its exactly what Obama did in ’09: appointed a lot of Dem senators, reps and Governors to various positions, really screwing with our Majority win. Arizona may never recover from losing their governor.

Yep. Obama shouldn’t run from confirmation battles. He should appoint excellent people, and use the process to build the number of qualified Democrats and to create stronger areas of political power or the party.

The senators he appointed were Clinton and Salazar – both were replaced by Democrats who won their special election.

The governors he appointed were Sebelius and Napolitano. They were both term-limited as governors, and it is just wildly, wildly unlikely to think either of them would have won senate elections in 2010. Are you really suggesting that Napolitano would have beaten McCain in 2010?

The only member of the House he appointed was Hilda Solis, who came from a super-Democratic district.

There is no reason to believe Rice would have made a better Secretary of State than Kerrey (or, as far as I know, vice versa). Rice is still UN Ambassador and, almost assuredly, will get another high ranking position with the administration in the coming year.

Yeah, the Republicans torpedoed her nomination and it was absurdly unfair since she had nothing to do with Bengazi but her not getting Secretary of State position is really a very minor thing.

And as far as losing a Senate seat, its likely that Kerrey would have gotten Defense if Rice had gotten State so a Senate seat would have been lost in any case. Kerrey has made it clear he wants a cabinet position and that he is owed one.

So you make a decision. Odds of Dems retaining the seat are, I would guess, a little better than 50-50. You piss Kerrey off by not giving him any cabinet position (and send an unwelcome message about rewarding friends and loyal supporters). Which is more important? I don’t think thats an easy call.

Rice has been very bad for Africa. Her unconditional support of Kagame and Museveni in their plunder and rape of Congo quite literally in this case makes her unfit to be Secretary of State. Her cover up in the UN for Rwandan and Ugandan aggression against Congo is not a secret. She was instrumental in facilitating the worst type of behavior by these regimes. See the work of Jason Stearns for instance on just how bad Rice has been in supporting crimes against humanity in Congo.

No not all on her own. But, that does not eliminate her moral responsibility for helping to formulate and implement these policies. Even if the policies were formulated by Obama completely on his own without Rice’s influence she would still bear responsibility for executing them. Why “progressives” only deny this with regards to Rice I do not know. They have no problem with the fact that while Kissinger was subordinate to Nixon this did not magically eliminate his moral responsibility for things like backing the 9/11/73 coup in Chile. The fact is that the Obama policies towards much of Africa, but certainly Congo have been absolutely awful. There are a lot of dead mean and women in Congo killed by proxies and soldiers of Rwanda and Uganda, two regimes that have received massive assistance from the US. This assistance has facilitated these crimes.

If the President thinks he has to have John Kerry in that slot, he shouldn’t saddle the country with someone he does not really want, on the off chance that lightning will strike twice in Massachusetts.

It does seem like Kerry thinks he is “owed” the job, and that bothers me. Why is he owed it? Is he really the most qualified person for it? Naturally the Senate will think so– John Tower is the only senator I can think of who got denied a cabinet appointment. When the world is in cinders and populated exclusively by cockroaches and Cher the Roach Senators will still extend senatorial courtesy to their own.

On one hand its absolutely embarrassing that a democratic president can’t get who he wants on his foreign policy team and naming Kerry could easily mean the loss of a (vital; given cloture voting) senate seat.

On the other hand I saw Eli Lake moping about this in my blog feed the other day.